For most of the shuttle, yes, but the removal of the paint from the tank specifically was because the tank had a foam coating that was not actually meaningfully protected by the paint.

Found the Kerbal Space Program player?

Back when NASA was flinging things into space for the first time, the tolerances that were even possible were extremely tight. Every pound mattered (every pound still matters, but because we have other things to do once we get to space nowadays, plus every pound is expensive).

600 pounds of white paint for the fuel tank was considered unnecessary, once the engineering team figured that it didn’t actually protect the special foam covering of the fuel tank anyway. Thus the distinctive orange color!

Yeah, unfortunately, nuclear power should have been heavily invested in about… 50 years ago. The “The best time was yesterday, the second-best time is now” line doesn’t apply with advancements in other energy sources and the sheer time it takes to build and get a nuclear plant operational. The best time was yesterday - now is perhaps the worst time.

Still, it is always good to push back on anti-nuclear sentiment. Every nuclear plant kept running is a massive amount of fossil fuels removed from power generation. I remember when Merkel closed a ton of nuclear plants in Germany for dogshit PR reasons, handing power back to fossil fuel suppliers.

Explanation: Nikola Tesla was a prolific and wildly influential inventor of the early 20th century AD. He also was in constant dire financial straits despite not having any major expensive vices (other than inventing), because, unlike his contemporary Thomas Edison, Tesla was not adept at maneuvering business deals (and certainly not with the cutthroat ruthlessness that Edison displayed - several times at Tesla’s expense).

Capitalism is better than feudalism because it rewards a wider range of intellectual ability and success than feudalism does… but that range still does not include innovation. You wanna be paid for your innovation in a capitalist system? Better have a lawyer and a business agent on hand as soon as you get out of the patent office. :/